A-Infos (en) Turkey - Anarchists on MayDay

[Ozgur Devrim <ozgurlukcudevrim@yahoo.com>]

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Anarchists demonstrated in at least six cities on May
1st in Turkey. Anarchists mostly organized as a bloc
near the permitted meeting square and marched to join
the official demo. (Report created by synthesis from
a-infos-tr, virtualmolotov message board and istanbul
indymedia)

ISTANBUL: Around 50 persons met at the black bloc
meeting point near Sisli and joined the official demo
at Sisli square. The numbers swelled at the square to
around 100. There were many black, red&black flags and
circled-A's but no banner. After shouting slogans and
marching for some time in Sisli among a crowd of
60.000+ (parties, unions, ngo's, students...), about
2/3 of the group left the square and marched in loose
formation intermittently shouting slogans towards
Taksim square, the city center. This half-hour march
outside the isolated demo zone traditionally allocated
for protests was positive and much more empowering
than what was taking place at Sisli. Uniform cops told
the group to fold the flags and be silent while
leaving Sisli but these orders were promptly ignored,
a few undercover cops followed the anarchists around.
Once at Taksim square, the anarchists maintained a low
profile in face of the huge police presence there and
slipped through to continue a quasi-demo style march
on Istiklal Street for some distance and then
dispersed.

Istanbul Pics:
http://istanbul.indymedia.org/news/2003/05/1741.php
Calls/posters-leaflets:
http://www.ainfos.ca/en/ainfos11824.html
http://istanbul.indymedia.org/news/2003/04/1709.php
http://istanbul.indymedia.org/news/2003/04/1618.php


ANKARA: About 75 anarchists came to form a black bloc
and marched with black, red&black and black-purple
flags and a circled-A banner to Sihhiye Square. The
circled-A banner was dropped from Sihhiye bridge. The
Ankara Anarchy Initiative distributed 2000 leaflets
titled "The Transparency of Evil" at the demo zone.
Tacanka Collective marched in a seperate group of
20-35 persons and distributed a leaflet titled
"Freedom Red&Black" and carried a banner reading "A
free world without capital, authority, state, cells".

Call for Black Bloc:
http://www.ainfos.ca/en/ainfos11822.html
Banners and leaflets:
http://www.geocities.com/karakizil/Pankart.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/karakizil/bildiri3.pdf

IZMIR: Anarchists marched from Hilton hotel to Gundogu
square carrying black and red&black flags and a banner
reading "Capitalism Kills - Black Bloc". About 75
anarchists converged at Cumhuriyet square. The march
was enthusiastic and the noisy anarchists captured a
lot of attention. The anarchist group circled around
the other groups rebel yelling and jogging. A local
radio made interview with an anarchist and the words
"like any other action labeled a demonstration, this
one began and will end. however the action against
state and war will one day begin and never end" went
on air.

USAK: The Usak Anarchist Autonome and several other
anarchists marched together as 5-10 persons with black
flags despite recent state repression against the Usak
A.A. The demo was dull but it was important to come
out on the streets for anarchists and not be silenced
by the police which at one point tried to again
intimidate the anarchists with undercover officers.

Call for Black Bloc:
http://www.ainfos.ca/en/ainfos11823.html

ANTALYA: A group of 25 anarchists went to MayDay demo
at Antalya with red&black flags. The police did not
allow their banner because it was not informed to the
organizing committee. The anarchist group was very
loud and some chants were picked up by other groups
while some were shunned.

MALATYA: About 10 anarchists marched behind the unions
carrying red&black flags at noon. They resisted an
attempt by leninists to push the group to the back of
the march. The overall atmosphere was tense because of
earlier arrest of a group of socialists. The MayDay
events were unenthusiastic because of the recent
earthquake at Bingol that killed 85, the heat and
participation was somewhat hurt because of college
exams deliberately placed on May 1st.

Call for Black Bloc: http://www.ainfos.ca/en/ainfos11821.html



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